Behind the Shot - Firearm Safety

I recently submitted the photo below of a Heckler & Koch 45 Compact Tactical to a social media contest with the firearm producer. By receiving 2,500 Likes on their Facebook page I stand to win free H&K gear; as promised here is how I safely took the shot.

From the start I had many ideas on how I wanted to capture this photo but I knew safety was going to be the biggest priority. This was reflected in the comments that I received after the photo was posted.

For safety sake, and given that I was not too keen at pointing my loaded gun at my camera or my head, which was directly behind the camera, I built this picture using two different photographs. I could have done all of this with in one take but I wanted to demonstrate to people to always treat a loaded gun with respect.